Term Limits

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TERM LIMITS

Former Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway confirmed Wednesday he owns the building that houses a popular sushi restaurant police allege is operating as an illegal nightclub. Police claim the restaurant Fury Rok & Rol Sushi Lounge, 4221 Dolphin Striker Way, generates a high number of drunk driving arrests in the neighborhood and that its parking lot is a haven for illicit activity including the possible use of illegal drugs. Ridgeway said he expected the clash between the city and his tenant to be resolved soon, but declined to comment further.

It was the annual Government Affairs Day hosted by the California Newspaper Publishers Assn. that brought me to our fair state capitol this week. Most of the talk seemed to center on redistricting and term limits. While addressing the group on redistricting, Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Assembly leader from Bakersfield, noted that in the 2004 general election, there were 153 state Senate, Assembly and statewide races in which the office remained under the control of the same party.

In the wee hours of the morning on Independence Day, the Costa Mesa City Council, once again, demonstrated their meetings can be high drama. At five minutes before midnight Tuesday ? the time when their rules call for them to cease deliberations for fear of making boneheaded decisions ? Mayor Mansoor had the city clerk read into the proceedings the issue of whether or not to place the question of a directly elected mayor on the ballot. As some will recall, this subject was requested recently by former 12-year councilman and multiple-term mayor, Gary Monahan.

Newport Beach attorney and former congressional candidate Steve Young has filed papers to run for Newport Beach City Council this fall, according to public records. Young filed papers on Thursday showing he intends to run for outgoing Councilman Don Webb’s District 3 seat in November. Webb is being forced out due to term limits. Young will do battle with political veteran Ed Reno in November for the vacant seat. An avowed fiscal conservative, Reno declared his candidacy in December flanked by Orange County Republican Chairman Scott Baugh and several members of the Newport Beach City Council.

In politics, some things never seem to change. In Costa Mesa, some of those things are the names on the ballot. Former Mayor Gary Monahan, who left the City Council in 2006 due to term limits, is serious enough about running for office next year that he has opened a council campaign to start raising funds. “I’ve gotten ready in case I decide to do it,” he said this week. “There’s still issues ... that I was involved in, that were dear to my heart, that I can still make a difference on, and I think there’s still some people that would support me.” Monahan was first elected to the council in 1994, which allowed him to squeak by the term limits law city voters adopted in 1996.

ON THE AGENDA A special meeting of the Newport Beach City Council will take place at 4 p.m. today. The open-session meeting includes just two issues, albeit important ones. JOHN WAYNE SETTLEMENT Council members will vote tonight on a plan to allow 1 million more passengers and two more gates at John Wayne Airport in exchange for assurances that airlines won't sue to overturn the new settlement agreement. The revised deal already has verbal consent from airline representatives, as well as from signatories to the agreement.

Mathis Winkler WEST NEWPORT BEACH -- Eleven years by the ocean can wear you out. Cars rust. Houses start to break up. Even glass isn't impervious to the ravages of saltwater. Now, the city is having to replace 400 glass panels along West Newport Park. The original 11-year-old panels, made of polycarbonate, have become opaque as a result of ultraviolet degradation. The new panels, made of an acrylic that's more resistant to sunlight, will be in place by the end of the month, city officials said.

Voters might notice that Costa Mesa Mayor Mayor Allan Mansoor lists his occupation as “Mayor/Deputy Sheriff” on the sample ballot mailed to their homes ahead of the June 8 GOP primary. In fact, the mayor quit the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in December as a sheriff’s deputy at the county’s Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana. Election rules allow candidates to list the job they held within the last 12 months, said Neal Kelley, Orange County Registrar of Voters.

Newport Beach resident and political veteran Ed Reno announced Monday night that he is throwing his well-financed, well-connected hat into the ring for Councilman Don Webb?s seat in 2010. At a $100-per-ticket fundraiser reception at the Newport Beach office of Scott Baugh, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, Reno was surrounded by the likes of Newport Beach Mayor Ed Selich, Mayor Pro Tem Keith Curry and an honored guest, former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota, as he kicked off his campaign.

Alicia Robinson After building a business she started on borrowed money into a multimillion-dollar electronics firm, Cristi Cristich wants to put her entrepreneurial experience toward policymaking in Sacramento. Cristich is one of six Republican candidates seeking the 70th District seat Assemblyman John Campbell will leave this year due to term limits. A native of Silicon Valley, Cristich took a job operating the switchboard for an electronics firm after graduating from high school in 1980.